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Two
It was another day.
“This attaché case we’ve heard so much about. On June 28th it was left in the main hall ofHunterbury all night?”
Nurse Hopkins agreed:
“Yes.”
“Rather a careless thing to do, wasn’t it?”
Nurse Hopkins flushed.
“Yes, I suppose it was.”
“Are you in the habit of leaving dangerous drugs lying about where anyone could get at ’em?”
“No, of course not.”
“Oh! you’re not? But you did it on this occasion?”
“Yes.”
“And it’s a fact, isn’t it, that anybody in the house could have got at that morphia if they’dwanted to?”
“I suppose so.”
“No suppose about it. It is so, isn’t it?”
“Well—yes.”
“It wasn’t only Miss Carlisle who could have got at it? Any of the servants could. Or Dr. Lord.
Or Mr. Roderick Welman. Or Nurse O’Brien. Or Mary Gerrard herself.”
“I suppose so—yes.”
“It is so, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Was anyone aware you’d got morphia in that case?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, did you talk about it to anyone?”
“No.”
“So, as a matter of fact, Miss Carlisle couldn’t have known that there was any morphia there?”
“She might have looked to see.”
“That’s very unlikely, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know, I’m sure.”
“There were people who’d be more likely to know about the morphia than Miss Carlisle. Dr.
Lord, for instance. He’d know. You were administering this morphia under his orders, weren’tyou?”
“Of course.”
“Mary Gerrard knew you had it there, too?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“She was often in your cottage, wasn’t she?”
“Not very often.”
“I suggest to you that she was there very frequently, and that she, of all the people in the house,would be the most likely to guess that there was morphia in your case.”
“I don’t agree.”
Sir Edwin paused a minute.
“You told Nurse O’Brien in the morning that the morphia was missing?”
“Yes.”
“I put it to you that what you really said was: ‘I have left the morphia at home. I shall have to goback for it.’”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You didn’t suggest that the morphia had been left on the mantelpiece in your cottage?”
“Well, when I couldn’t find it I thought that must have been what had happened.”
“In fact, you didn’t really know what you’d done with it!”
“Yes, I did. I put it in the case.”
“Then why did you suggest on the morning of June 29th that you had left it at home?”
“Because I thought I might have done.”
“I put it to you that you’re a very careless woman.”
“That’s not true.”
“You make rather inaccurate2 statements sometimes, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t. I’m very careful what I say.”
“Did you make a remark about a prick3 from a rose tree on July 27th — the day of MaryGerrard’s death?”
“I don’t see what that’s got to do with it!”
The judge said:
“Is that relevant, Sir Edwin?”
“Yes, my lord, it is an essential part of the defence, and I intend to call witnesses to prove thatthat statement was a lie.”
He resumed:
“Yes, I did.”
“When did you do that?”
Sir Edwin said sceptically:
“And what rose tree was this?”
“A climbing one just outside the Lodge, with pink flowers.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m quite sure.”
Sir Edwin paused and then asked:
“You persist in saying the morphia was in the attaché case when you came to Hunterbury onJune 28th?”
“I do. I had it with me.”
“Supposing that presently Nurse O’Brien goes into the box and swears that you said you hadprobably left it at home?”
“It was in my case. I’m sure of it.”
Sir Edwin sighed.
“You didn’t feel at all uneasy about the disappearance7 of the morphia?”
“Not—uneasy—no.”
“Oh, so you were quite at ease, notwithstanding the fact that a large quantity of a dangerousdrug had disappeared?”
“I didn’t think at the time anyone had taken it.”
“I see. You just couldn’t remember for the moment what you had done with it?”
“Not at all. It was in the case.”
“Twenty half grain tablets—that is, ten grains of morphia. Enough to kill several people, isn’tit?”
“Yes.”
“But you are not uneasy—and you don’t even report the loss officially?”
“I thought it was all right.”
“I put it to you that if the morphia had really disappeared the way it did you would have beenbound, as a conscientious8 person, to report the loss officially.”
Nurse Hopkins, very red in the face, said:
“Well, I didn’t.”
“That was surely a piece of criminal carelessness on your part? You don’t seem to take yourresponsibilities very seriously. Did you often mislay these dangerous drugs?”
“It never happened before.”
It went on for some minutes. Nurse Hopkins, flustered9, red in the face, contradicting herself…aneasy prey10 to Sir Edwin’s skill.
“Is it a fact that on Thursday, July 6th, the dead girl, Mary Gerrard, made a will?”
“She did.”
“Why did she do that?”
“Because she thought it was the proper thing to do. And so it was.”
“Nonsense.”
“It showed, though, that the idea of death was present in her mind—that she was brooding onthe subject.”
“Not at all. She just thought it was the proper thing to do.”
“Is this the will? Signed by Mary Gerrard, witnessed by Emily Biggs and Roger Wade,confectioners’ assistants, and leaving everything of which she died possessed12 to Mary Riley, sisterof Eliza Riley?”
“That’s right.”
It was handed to the jury.
“To your knowledge, had Mary Gerrard any property to leave?”
“Not then, she hadn’t.”
“But she was shortly going to have?”
“Yes.”
“Is it not a fact that a considerable sum of money—two thousand pounds—was being given toMary by Miss Carlisle?”
“Yes.”
“There was no compulsion on Miss Carlisle to do this? It was entirely13 a generous impulse onher part?”
“She did it of her own free will, yes.”
“But surely, if she had hated Mary Gerrard, as is suggested, she would not of her own free willhave handed over to her a large sum of money.”
“That’s as may be.”
“What do you mean by that answer?”
“I don’t mean anything.”
“Exactly. Now, had you heard any local gossip about Mary Gerrard and Mr. RoderickWelman?”
“He was sweet on her.”
“Have you any evidence of that?”
“I just knew it, that’s all.”
“Oh—you ‘just knew it.’ That’s not very convincing to the jury, I’m afraid. Did you say on oneoccasion Mary would have nothing to do with him because he was engaged to Miss Elinor and shesaid the same to him in London?”
“That’s what she told me.”
Sir Samuel Attenbury re-examined:
“When Mary Gerrard was discussing with you the wording of this will, did the accused look inthrough the window?”
“Yes, she did.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘So you’re making your will, Mary. That’s funny.’ And she laughed. Laughed andlaughed. And it’s my opinion,” said the witness viciously, “that it was at that moment the ideacame into her head. The idea of making away with the girl! She’d murder in her heart that veryminute.”
“Confine yourself to answering the questions that are asked you. The last part of that answer isto be struck out….”
Elinor thought:
“How queer… When anyone says what’s true, they strike it out….”
She wanted to laugh hysterically15.
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